A Final Chance
by xXFashingskyXx
Summary: Skye is hopeless. Until someone admits a feeling.
1. Chapter 1

Skye, a despairing lady in the full bloom of youth, stood alone on the beach, gazing over the cerulean water with her morose hazel depths. Her mahogany hair danced lightly in the ocean breeze. She tried to deny the stirrings in her heart, resting her cheek against one hand as she hummed to herself. She wore a carrot-colored bikini top, her healthily color-touched pale back covered only by a thin bit of string, and a tight flaming miniskirt showed the shape of her hips and the cotton candy-flushed silvery tone of her legs. Her hair was woven into a swarthy braid, complementing her pained lily-white, tinted with henna, visage. A prominent scar stood out on her lily-white, tinted with sepia, skin. Furry ears flicked at the top of her head, and she twitched her coffee tail. She stood, awaiting her love.

They had known each other since they were children. They had spent time together so often that, despite all differences, others often mistook them as siblings. However, it was not until recently that they had recognized their feelings for each other. From then on, Skye was sometimes needy and close, but then suddenly cold and fearful. Fury tried his best to hide his pain, but it was plain in her hands. That was how it was to this very day.

Her ears pricked at the sound of familiar footsteps. She twitched her tail happily and looked up before Fury even spoke a word. "Skye," he said simply with a glance at her outfit caught between disapproval and admiration and a smile on her face. Her kiwi-colored orbs complimented her chartreuse strands, brushing against her shoulders, belying her guileless heart. She was dressed in her usual everyday clothes. She had a toned but slender body covered with pale, tinted with sorrel, skin. As Skye drew nearer, she caught a note of Fury's familiarscent of lingering iron and steel. Her eyes softened. It always reminded her of the time they shared.

"Fury. I feared you might not come," Skye whispered.

"Of course I came," she said, sounding somewhat hurt.

Skye shook her head. "Everyone else abandoned me."

"I won't leave you," Fury said firmly. Fury held his hand out to her, and hesitantly Skye took it. With that, they began to walk along the beach.

Skye's mind was flooded by painful thoughts. She clung tightly to Fury's firm hand as if it could save Skye. She was without a mother and she was a freak. Fury, strong as he was, wouldn't possibly stoop down to help someone like Skye.

"What is it, Skye?" Fury suddenly asked.

"N-nothing," Skye whispered. "Why do you ask...?"

"Your hand is so tense." Skye let her head droop and let go. She was always causing Fury trouble... "I don't mean it like that. I mean if something's bothering you, you should tell me."

"No... Fury, I couldn't..."

Fury looked at Skye long and hard. Fury was struggling to understand what it was that plagued Skye, but to Skye, it seemed like he was glaring at her.

"I-I'm sorry, I'm always so..."

"Always so... what?"

Fury gave Skye a long and measured look. "You'll tell me when you're ready, won't you?"

Skye gave the faintest of nods. But of course she could not imagine ever feeling ready to tell her her secrets. In truth, Skye hardly even deserved her. Skye was ... Nothing but an outcast. A freak.


	2. Chapter 2

Skye was unworthy of her time. The very thought of that brought tears to her eyes, and she looked away from Fury to hide them. But she couldn't hide the sobs that shook her.

"Skye." Skye rubbed the tears from her eyes. "Skye, look, you need to tell me. You're so upset..."

"I've already been alone once, and I don't think I could stand it again!"

"But you won't be! You have me, don't you?"

"It's... I'm..." Skye's shoulders shook, and she buried her face in her hands. "Forget it! Let's just..."

Fury put an assuring arm around Skye's shoulders and brought her toward herself. "It will be all right. It's all right... I'm here. I'm here."

After a few moments, they found themselves walking down the beach again. Skye couldn't stop thinking about her mother's death. It plagued her endlessly - while she was far from Fury and while she was near. It threatened to consume her. When Skye had let the faintest hints slip in the moments before, it had already taken taken so much of her will.

With concern, Fury turned her seraphic pools toward Skye. "Skye? What's wrong?"

"Fury... it's..."

And at that moment everything came together, all of the magic and the hurt that had been building that day, and she locked her globes with hers and whispered, "You can tell me."

It was like a floodgate burst, or some barrier of fear had been struck down. Skye shook her head and everything came out at once. "It's... it's my mother. Sometimes I can't believe she's gone. It's not just that she's dead, but when it happened, it... changed so much. Sometimes I wonder about what it'd be like if it all went back... I don't even know how I would feel about that. It just... it hurts, Fury, thinking about it. It just hurts."


	3. Chapter 3

Fury listened silently and solemnly. At last, when all the words had left Skye and she was at a loss for words, Fury reached out to her and took a deep breath to whisper back, "Skye... that's awful. It wish that weren't how it is. I wish I could say more. Skye..." Skye's eyes began to burn, and she abruptly pulled Fury into a fierce embrace. Fury's windows to her soul widened at first, but then she too felt overwhelmed by emotion and succumbed to the warmth of Skye's touch.

"You," Skye whispered, her breath hot on Fury's ear. "As long as you're here, I... I can make it."They held each other as tears trickled down cheeks and dripped onto the shifting sands to be carried away into the sea. With time and soothing embraces, their pain dissipated into a mist swept out by the ocean breeze and into the setting sun.

They basked in each other's quiet companionship for a few moments.


	4. Chapter 4

"Look... it's the sunset."

Skye lifted her head at Fury's words to behold the dying sun's fiery radiance. "Mm."

After a moment of silence, Fury took Skye's hands in his and said quietly and seriously, "Skye, I need to say something. Without you, I would be the sea without the moon - the moon without the sun - You are irreplaceable to me."

"Fury," she breathed in response. "I'm... I'm not that special."

"You are," Fury insisted, sounding almost hurt. "I'm not lying."

"I don't mean to say you're lying. Just that... never mind. Fury... you're... precious to me as well."

Fury brought their clasped hands to her lips. "Then... so long as you will it, we will never be parted."

Skye sighed with contentment and brought Fury closer. She gazed at the beautiful lemon-colored rays of the falling sun, thinking about everything that had transpired on this day and all that would pass between them.

"You'll hurt your eyes doing that," Fury whispered.

Skye looked at her instead. "I love you, Fury."

"I love you too, Skye."

Their lips met, and swarthy strands met kiwi-colored ones, aflame in the dying light. The sand was their witness and the rumbling ocean their approving audience, and Fury, her eternally faithful lover. Skye thought to herself that nothing had ever been so perfect for her as this.


End file.
